The steep fall of the yuan this week does not signal a major shift in the country's foreign exchange policy or its long-term currency revaluation trend, analysts said.

But the yuan should not rise too fast because that would hurt exporters, who are already reeling under the impact the global financial crisis, said Lian Ping, chief economist of Bank of Communications.

The two-day China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED), which starts today, is likely to see Washington imposing greater pressure on Beijing to revaluate the yuan.